>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <01b001bf3c57$3d988410$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Arianna >Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 15:53:18 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 >Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) >Copyright: 1999 The Fresno Bee >Contact: letters@fresnobee.com >Fax: (209) 441 6436 >Mail: 626 "E" St Fresno, CA 93786 >Feedback: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/opinion/letters.html >Website: http://www.fresnobee.com/ >Forum: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/projects/webforums/opinion.html >Author: Arianna Huffington >Note: National syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington's columns appear, >according to her website at http://www.ariannaonline.com/ (where there is >also a discussion forum for this column), "... in such papers as the Los >Angeles Times, New York Post and Chicago Sun-Times." >Please: Since we do not know where and when the column actually appeared, >if any readers can verify it appeared in any newspaper, please send a note >with the newspaper's name and date to: richard@mapinc.org >So: we may update this website page with a list of the newspapers in which >this column actully appeared. >Related: The Australian newspaper articles about Judge Judy's statement: >http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1245/a06.html >http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1245/a07.html > >THE NEW CALLOUSNESS > >Judge Judy, the doyenne of syndicated self-righteousness, solidified that >preeminence two weeks ago at a literary luncheon in Brisbane, Australia. On >tour to promote her new book, "Beauty Fades, Dumb Is Forever," she >suggested that instead of attempting to control AIDS and hepatitis by >providing clean needles to drug addicts we should "give them all dirty >needles and let them die." > >Instead of resulting in universal derision (and, even more justly, a >lightning bolt from the sky) this stunning proposal evoked cheers from her >fans in the audience. But it got not a mention from the U.S. press (indeed, >if it weren't for the people at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, I never >would have heard about it). Granted, Judge Judy isn't William Rehnquist, >but the sharp-tongued, dull-witted jurist's opinions -- doled out on her >top-rated TV show -- are heard by millions more people than the Chief >Justice's. > >Worse, her views reflect a disturbing trend in our culture toward getting >the "love" out of tough love. Call it the New Callousness: turning an >indifferent shoulder to anyone -- drug addicts, the homeless, those behind >bars -- who hasn't had the good sense to become a bull-market rider. After >all, they're getting in the way of the Panglossian message that all is well >"in this best of all possible worlds." > >Evidence of this cold spot on the national heart is all around us. In New >York, Mayor Rudy (rhymes with Judge Judy) rang in the holiday season by >ordering the NYPD to step up its efforts to sweep the city's streets of >homeless people by arresting them for so-called "quality-of-life" crimes. >Declaring that the city has not been strict enough in rousting people "who >don't belong there," Giuliani claimed that the right to sleep on the >streets "doesn't exist anywhere. The founding fathers never put that in the >Constitution." He doesn't seem too keen on the homeless living in city >shelters either: He recently announced that anyone wanting to stay in one >would have to work or face expulsion -- mental illness or not. > >Apparently, he prefers sending them to jail, where mental-health-unit beds >cost $91,000 annually. It costs $20,000 for a bed in a shelter and $12,000 >for the supervised apartments that remain woefully underfunded, even though >they have proven the most effective in dealing with chronic homelessness. >"There were times," Mayor Rudy said, "in which we romanticized this to such >an extent that we invited people to do it." Ah, yes, the romance of >sleeping under the stars in a cardboard box in the dead of winter. > >Proving that heartlessness cuts across party lines, Willie Brown, San >Francisco's liberal mayor, is overseeing his own crackdown on the homeless >-- just in time for his upcoming runoff election against even-more-liberal >rival Tom Ammiano. Brown is clearly reveling in this rare chance to stake >out the "conservative" position in the race -- going so far as to arrest >homeless advocates for handing out soup and sandwiches to the poor. >"Advocate types claim I'm the most hostile" to the homeless, said Brown. >"That's not true. I'm not the most generous. I'm not the most hostile. But >I am the most firm." Call Tony Bennett, it's time for a rewrite: "I lost my >heart in San Francisco." > >In fact, more and more of our cities are using the police to enforce arcane >laws -- such as sanitation statutes that make it illegal to leave cardboard >boxes in a public place -- to get the homeless off the streets, including >many homeless veterans who risked their lives for their country. > >In Los Angeles, Ted Hayes, who has devoted his life to working with the >homeless, calls the coast-to-coast crackdown "status cleansing." "For us to >turn to outlawing our homeless citizens," he told me, "is a betrayal of the >promise of America -- 'Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me.' >Perhaps the Statue of Liberty should be turned around to face this country." > >Transforming human beings into nuisances -- problems that must be >eradicated -- is a dangerous step along the deadly path of dehumanization. >It takes very little to end a life that has been stripped of its humanity. >Which is exactly what is happening in Denver, where this fall seven >homeless men have been bludgeoned to death, two of the victims beheaded. > >Is this the logical endgame for a culture so intent on celebrating its >"winners" that it has no room left for life's losers? > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: